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U.S. stock futures edged lower on Thursday evening as renewed pressure on technology and artificial intelligence stocks overshadowed optimism surrounding a more accommodative Federal Reserve. The pullback was driven largely by a sharp decline in Broadcom shares, which fell in after-hours trading despite posting strong quarterly earnings, raising fresh concerns about the sustainability of the AI-led rally.
Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) dropped as much as 5% after the chipmaker warned that its higher-margin, non-AI businesses could see muted performance in the current quarter. Investors were also unsettled by the company’s comments that a major data center deal linked to OpenAI is unlikely to generate meaningful returns until at least 2027. While Broadcom exceeded expectations for fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and issued an above-consensus revenue forecast, the cautious outlook was enough to trigger profit-taking after the stock’s roughly 75% surge so far in 2025. The company did highlight a sizable AI-related order backlog of $73 billion over the next 18 months, but concerns lingered about customer concentration and the possibility of major clients developing in-house AI chips.
Weakness in Broadcom followed a steep selloff in Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), which plunged more than 10% during Thursday’s regular session. Although Oracle delivered solid earnings, investor skepticism over its exposure to OpenAI and the reliability of its future AI-driven cloud orders weighed heavily on sentiment, dragging down the broader tech sector.
By 19:29 ET, S&P 500 Futures slipped nearly 0.1% to 6,903.75 points, Nasdaq 100 Futures fell 0.2% to 25,671.25 points, and Dow Jones Futures bucked the trend, rising 0.1% to 48,799.0 points. Earlier in the day, Wall Street closed mostly higher, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching record highs, supported by gains in non-tech stocks.
Investor confidence was bolstered by the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by 25 basis points and signal a less hawkish policy stance. Fed Chair Jerome Powell also announced an immediate resumption of asset purchases, with the central bank set to buy $40 billion in Treasury bills per month. The move is expected to inject additional liquidity into financial markets, potentially supporting risk assets in the months ahead, even as near-term volatility persists in the tech and AI sectors.
